Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. chose that question for the title of his final book. He answered it by recommending a number of challenges, strategies and solutions intended to reckon with the heritage and potential of black America.

The visionary cultural movement known as “Afrofuturism” asks much the same question, but adds spaceships, time travel, the supernatural, surrealism and other imaginative concepts to more traditional examinations of racial identity.

As global in scope as the dispersal of Africa's people, Afrofuturism — recently promoted to a vast mainstream audience via the movie mega-smash, “Black Panther” — applies a science-fiction and fantasy aesthetic to black expression, philosophy and design.

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April 12, 2018 - Memphis science-fiction writer Sheree Renée Thomas is the organizer of "Black to the Future: Revival on the River," that will gather Afrofuturists from around the country, including novelists, essayists, comic-book writers and artists, musicians and filmmakers. Memphis' first Afrofuturism festival and art exhibition, "Black to the Future: Revival on the River," set for Saturday, April 21, at the Art Village Gallery at 410 S. Main.(Photo: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal, Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)

For example, in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier is a gleaming high-tech aircraft — cool, but culturally nondescript. In "Black Panther," the Wakanda Royal Talon Fighter — the "Air Force One" that carries Prince T'Challa and his companions — is not just cool but meaningful: It is designed to resemble a West African tribal mask. That's Afrofuturism.

The term "Afrofuturism" was coined in 1993 by Boston-born "cyberculture" critic Mark Dery, in an essay titled "Black to the Future." That phrase in turn has been borrowed for the title of Memphis' first Afrofuturism festival and art exhibition, "Black to the Future: Revival on the River," set for Saturday, April 21, at the Art Village Gallery at 410 S. Main, owned by Ephraim and Sheila Urevbu.

Organized by Memphis science-fiction writer Sheree Renée Thomas, the event will gather Afrofuturists from around the country, including novelists, essayists, comic-book writers and artists, musicians and filmmakers.

Work by Baltimore-born Nettrice Gaskins will be on exhibit during the April 21 "Black to the Future" festival.(Photo: Nettrice Gaskins)

"The purpose is simple," said artist Stacey Robinson, who teaches at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. "It is a celebration of all that is us, while imagining our lives free from oppression."

"In many ways, to be black in this country is to be an alien, and to be living in a dystopian society, so it's not an unnatural response to reach for science fiction to help deal with that experience," said Thomas, 45, a lifelong Memphian who earned the World Fantasy Award for her influential anthology, "Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora," which traced the history of black science fiction back to the 19th century and rediscovered such works as W.E.B. Du Bois' 1920 story, "The Comet."

Although dystopian visions of dire futures characterized by societal collapse and environmental calamity are never out of sci-fi-fashion, Afrofuturism is frequently inspiring. The very word is hopeful: At a time when white supremacists seem emboldened while “over and over again… a black person gets killed just for being black" (to quote novelist Angie Thomas), Afrofuturism promises a future in which Africans and African-Americans are not just present but central.

"When people hear that term, they get a sense of what is possible," Thomas said.

Robinson defined Afrofuturism as "a mechanism" — inspired in part by science, technology and engineering — that "focuses our efforts to imagine and create better tomorrows." He said his art — which combines Pop wit, comic-book dynamism and the cosmic sense of wonder of a Hubble telescope transmission — uses Afrofuturistic themes to visualize "black-occupied spaces" in a "colonial-free future."

Comic book legend Stan Lee, left, creator of the "Black Panther" superhero, poses with Chadwick Boseman, star of the new "Black Panther" film, at the premiere at The Dolby Theatre on Jan. 29, 2018, in Los Angeles. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Ryan Coogler, right, director/co-writer of "Black Panther," poses with his wife, Zinzi Evans, at the premiere of the film at The Dolby Theatre on Jan. 29, 2018, in Los Angeles. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Angela Bassett, left, a cast member in "Black Panther," is joined by her husband, actor Courtney B. Vance, on the carpet at the premiere of the film at the El Capitan Theatre on Jan. 29, 2018, in Los Angeles. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Andy Serkis, left, a cast member in "Black Panther," and his wife Lorraine Ashbourne pose together at the premiere of the film at The Dolby Theatre on Jan. 29, 2018, in Los Angeles. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Actor/director Jon Favreau, left, and actor/musician Donald Glover laugh on the carpet at the premiere of the film "Black Panther" at The Dolby Theatre on Jan. 29, 2018, in Los Angeles. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Chadwick Boseman, right, star of "Black Panther," is surrounded by onlookers as he poses on the carpet at the premiere of the film at The Dolby Theatre on Jan. 29, 2018, in Los Angeles. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

The hood of a specially modified Lexus LC500 that featured in the upcoming Disney movie "Black Panther" is shown on display at the North American International Auto Show on Jan. 15, 2018, in Detroit. Tony Ding/Associated Press

This image provided by Marvel Comics shows the variant cover of Black Panther #1 written by Ta-Nehisi Coates on sale in May 2018 featuring his new storyline “The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda.” The cover was drawn by InHyuk Lee. As people gear up for the “Black Panther” movie, acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates wants them to check out the original source, Marvel’s Black Panther comic book, where he’s booting up a massive outer space adventure for the king of Wakanda. Marvel via Associated Press

Examples of Afrofuturism can be found most easily in the work of nationally known artists. In movie theaters, there's "The Black Panther” and director Ava DuVernay’s “black woman-ified” (to quote The New York Times) adaptation of “A Wrinkle in Time." In music, the pop recordings, videos and fashions of such artists as Missy Elliott and Janelle Monáe incorporate Afrofuturistic elements.

However, Memphis creators also have embraced the style and philosophy. Hip-hop artist Marco Pavé’s collaboration with Opera Memphis, “Welcome to Grc Lnd 2030,” which ends its run April 14, imagines a future in which a new yellow fever epidemic decimates the black population.

Although lacking a label, Afrofuturism as recognized today more or less originated in the late 1950s and continued into the 1960s and '70s and beyond, with the acclaimed science fiction of black "New Wave" writer Samuel R. Delany (whose race was unknown to most of his readers); the work of Octavia E. Butler, whose 1979 novel "Kindred" involved time travel to the antebellum South; the "interstellar" jazz of Sun Ra (whose albums included "We Travel the Spaceways" and "The Nubians of Plutonia"); the "cosmic slop" of Parliament/Funkadelic; the addition of black characters to comic books and sci-fi and adventure television programs; and the emergence of post-civil rights philosophers, activists, critics and other intellectuals who recognized technology as a tool of both oppression and resistance.

Reynaldo Anderson, chair of the Humanities Department at Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis, said the current wave of Afrofuturism — which he calls "Afrofuturism 2.0" — has largely developed via "the emergence of social media, where people could build networks and exchange relationships, ideas and art."

He said President Trump's recent comment that Haiti and African nations were "(expletive) countries" helped illustrate why people all over the world are embracing Afrofuturistic concepts, even if they are unfamiliar with the the term. "Black Panther," for example, represents a proud rebuke of Trump's insult.

"'Panther' is kind of like a mashup of Afrofuturism 2.0, in terms of metaphysics, technology, history, aesthetics, social science, and theoretical and applied science," said Anderson, who will be in Memphis for the "Black to the Future" event. (He'll have copies of his nonfiction books, which include "Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Astro-Blackness," and "Cosmic Underground: A Grimoire of Black Speculative Discontent.")

An example of the intricate illustration found in Memphis comic book artist John Cooley's "Rise of the Golden Dragon."(Photo: John Cooley)

Another "Black to the Future" participant will be John Cooley, 48, owner of Fanboy Entertainment. Cooley is a Memphis comic-book creator whose titles — including "Warrior Breed" and "Rise of the Golden Dragon" — feature "multiracial and multicultural" casts.

He said his idea of Afrofuturism is to imagine a better world than our own.

"The abject violence against black men — the shoot first, ask questions later attitude —that happens in the real world does not happen in the comics that I write," Cooley said. "It just doesn't happen."

Thomas — who studied with Octavia Butler at the famous Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle — pointed out that Memphis will mark the 200th anniversary of its founding in May 2019.

"What kind of bicentennial plans do we have?" she asked, echoing the "Where Do We Go from Here?" question. "What does the future look like for us? Where do we want to be in the next 200 years? I haven't heard anyone from the city government talking about that, but I feel like the Afrofuturists are people who are already having that conversation."